Aria's finger tightened nervously on the trigger of her pistol. The crew of the freighter were combing the cargo hold for her after a camera spotted her soon after the ship left Illium. She only had one thermal clip left, and although she still had her biotics she couldn't take on the entire crew of a freighter with them. A merc passed by, eyeing the dark corner where Aria was hidden. A flashlight flickered into life in his hand, dancing towards the asari. Aria aimed down the sight, preparing to fire the moment she was seen.
"Jhona, what are you doing?" A turian merc wandered into view. The flashlight stopped inches from Aria's face. "You seriously think she's hiding in a corner?"
"It's a dark corner," the merc with the flashlight shrugged. "You really want to take any chances here?"
"We've been here for hours," his companion sighed. "If we haven't found her by now, we're not going to."
"You want to let some asari bitch wander around on this ship?" Jhona shook his head. "It's on your head Thorus."
"Yeah, yeah. Come on, game of Skyllian Fives?" The mercs wandered away. Aria realised she had been holding her breath the whole time and finally let it out, gasping with relief. She considered her options for a moment: either she could hide here until she was eventually discovered, or the ship docked somewhere; or else she could take over the ship, somehow.
Figuring it would only be a matter of time before the crew found her anyway, Aria stepped out of the shadows and made her way through the cargo bay. She pressed up against the door and listened carefully.
"- so you see, it's not that I don't like the work," a muffled voice was saying. "It's just that I want to get out there, explore my horizons you know? Galaxy's my oyster and all that."
"That is the most idiotic pile of shit I have ever heard," another voice replied. "Why bother giving up an easy job guarding a freighter? Who's going to try and steal this pile of junk?"
Aria kicked the door open and stormed through, pistol raised. The two mercs spun to face the asari, hands scrambling for their weapons. Aria lined up her pistol and sent a bullet straight through the first mercenary's head. In the blink of an eye she closed the distance between her and the second merc, sending him tumbling to the ground with a biotic-infused punch.
"Now listen here," she hissed, kicking the turian's shotgun out of reach and crushing his windpipe with her boot. "You're going to tell me everything I want to know, or you end up like your friend here. Understood?"
The merc gargled, nodding furiously. Aria sighed and released some of the pressure on his neck. "What… what do you want to know?"
"Which way to the bridge?"
"Down that corridor, then take the elevator up three floors," the merc pointed down the corridor.
"And how many mercs are there?"
"No- ahhh!" Aria cut him off with a stamp on his neck. "There aren't any, I swear!"
"How many are on this ship then?" She dug her heel in a little more, then released it to let him speak.
"Only a handful," the merc gasped, tears running from his eyes.
"Numbers," Aria kicked the turian across the face and felt something crack. The mercenary howled in pain, and she stamped on his neck again to shut him up.
"Maybe, ten or twelve," he gasped when Aria finally let him breathe again. She dug her heel in again. "Ten, okay! There are ten of us!"
"Thank you for your cooperation," Aria smiled sweetly, then put a bullet through his forehead. She grabbed his shotgun and searched through the two bodies for any thermal clips, unhappily consigning herself to the three spares she had found. The asari made her way down the corridor the merc had indicated without incident. The crew wouldn't be down here until the ship docked and the cargo had to be unloaded anyway.
Aria called the elevator down to the cargo bay, her eyes flashing up and down the corridor. The lights flickered suddenly, and she heard a whine of gears from the elevator, followed by a crunch. The panel next to her showed that the elevator had lost power. Aria kicked the door in frustration, and began to look around for a new way to the bridge. Her eyes passed over a ventilation shaft, and she smiled grimly as she began to remove it. At least they wouldn't see her coming, she thought, clambering into the vent and making her way up a maintenance ladder.
The asari slid through the vents without much issue, only pausing once or twice when she heard mercenaries moving below her. Just as she reached the bridge, and alarm began to wail around the ship. Somebody must have found the mercs in the cargo bay. Aria swore, and hit out at the vent. Unfortunately, the spot she hit was old and rusting, and disintegrated when she struck out at it. Several meters of the vent collapsed under her, and then crashed to the ground in next a group of astonished mercenaries in the freighter's mess hall.
Before any of them could react, Aria sent three of the eight flying into a wall with her biotics where they sank to the ground and lay still. Scrambling to her feet, Aria dived over the vent and managed to dispatch another with her shotgun before the mercs raked the vent with gunfire. Aria crawled along on all fours to a nearby wall while the mercs emptied clip after clip into the vent. After five minutes, it went quiet, though Aria's ears were still ringing.
"Do you think she's dead?"
"Can't have survived that."
"Go and check."
"I'm not doing it on my own!"
"I'm not doing it on my own…"
"… Sir."
"Hulse, Kaile, go and make sure she's dead. Ilon, see if those three are still alive."
Aria peeked out from behind the wall and saw a merc flipping a coin with his sour-faced companion. Another was kneeling by the three mercs at the wall, and turned to speak to the last merc – a thickset batarian wielding a massive shotgun in one hand and a cigar in the other.
"Boss, they're dead."
"Shit," the commander tapped his earpiece. "Kos, I've got four dead men down here, we need to talk about a new wage… Well you never said… Yeah, but… Fine. Hulse, go and make sure she's dead. Now!"
The batarian's four eyes blinked stupidly at his commander, then he nodded and clambered over the vent. As soon as he saw Aria, she obliterated his face with a blast of her shotgun. She swung it to the second mercenary at the remains of the vent, opening up his chest with another blast. The commander pulled his own shotgun around to face her, but Aria managed to put up a biotic barrier just in time to deflect the shot. She collapsed to her knees, her energy drained from blocking such a powerful shot.
Aria threw herself away from another blast of the commander's shotgun, then screamed in pain when a bullet caught her in the shoulder. The mercenary on the other side of the room opened fire, and Aria began to crawl away from the fire that was once again tearing through the vent. Another bullet skimmed the back of her thigh, and she began to crawl faster. Then, a boot stamped down hard on the middle of her back and crushed her against the floor.
The searing-hot muzzle of a shotgun was placed behind her ear and the asari realised she had been caught. Aria looked desperately around for a way to escape, then noticed a collection of steam valves above her. She screwed up as much energy as possible, and wrenched the pipes towards her. A gout of steam was directed straight into all four of the batarian's eyes, sending him staggering back with a bellow of agony. Aria rolled away from the steam, pulled out her pistol and fired half the clip into the commander's head and neck. The asari pushed herself to her feet and took aim at the last mercenary - a salarian - who dropped his rifle and threw his hands into the air as Aria stalked towards him.
"Please, I'll do anything," he whimpered. Aria ignored him and kicked him to the floor, then looked at some of the bodies around her.
"Anything?" Aria's mouth twisted in a grim smile. The mercenary nodded fearfully. "Lie down and keep still. Move and I'll shoot out your kneecaps."
Ten minutes later, Aria pushed the mercenary towards the bridge, rolling her eyes at the whimpering salarian.
"Stop crying, you might at least keep your dignity," she pushed him again, forcing him up against the locked door of the bridge and wincing a little at the pain in her shoulder. "Get me in there."
"Okay, okay!" The mercenary was shaking so much that he put in the wrong code.
"You have one more chance," Aria shot a bullet into the mercenary's knee, and he collapsed to the floor with a scream. "The next one goes in your head."
"What's… going on… out there?" An intercom crackled into life above them, heavy with static. Judging by the sound of the rebreather, it was the volus merchant she had seen at the docks in Illium.
"One. More. Chance," Aria repeated, pressing the barrel of her pistol into the mercenary's neck so that he whimpered with pain.
"It's Ilon, the boss sent me up," the mercenary said into the intercom, tears streaming down his cheeks as he tried to hold back the pain in his knee. Aria sighed and hit him across the head with her pistol to get him to hurry up. "He wanted me to give you a full report. In person."
"Fine… I'm unlocking the door," the volus wheezed. The light on the door flickered green, and Aria pushed the mercenary inside.
"Okay, here's what's happening," Aria shouted, firing a shot into the roof of the bridge as she strode in, dragging the salarian in by his collar. It had less than half the crew it should, most of them pale and sickly-looking salarians, who flinched at the sheer authority in the asari's voice. Like the rest of the ship, it was dark, dank and rusting. "Either you hand over the ship, or I pull the pins of all fifteen grenades on this kid and blow a fucking great hole in this ship."
"Which do you prefer Ilon?" Aria turned to the mercenary, who whimpered again. The grenades strapped around his body clinked as he shook with fear. Shaking her head at this pathetic sight, Aria shot out his other kneecap. A high-pitched scream followed the gunshot, and soon the mercenary was sobbing again. "Shut up! And stop crying, you look ridiculous."
A volus waddled over to the asari. "If we give you… the ship… you'll let us… live?"
"Just because I could pilot it myself," Aria glared down at the volus. "Doesn't mean I want to. You get me to Omega, I'll let you go."
The volus looked from Aria to the grenade-bound mercenary. "Fine… the ship… is yours."
"Excellent, set a course for Omega," Aria shot the salarian through the head. The crew looked at her, eyes wide with fear. "Now!"